by Terry L. Sumerlin

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Henry John Dutschendorf, Jr. was an architecture major at Texas Tech University.   In 1964 he quit school and moved to Los Angeles to pursue another career.  According to the customer who told me this story, the young man was informed he had no creative ability, and was advised to go into another field.

Some time later, this college dropout began to manifest obvious signs of affluence. His friends became curious.  What happened?  As it turned out, the student with no creative talent hit it big.  He’d written a song that sold to the group: Peter, Paul and Mary.  You may have heard of the song: Leaving on a Jet Plane.  You may have also heard of its writer, John Denver. 

This story, though possibly a bit embellished through repetition, always gives me a lift.  It reminds me of certain principles of success.  

First of all, it reminds me of the futility and frustration of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.  Apparently, Denver was not cut out for architecture.  Likely, he would have been a miserable failure at the profession.  Worse yet, had he chosen that field, the world would have been deprived of the wonderful benefits of his true gifts.

The story also brings to mind the power of passion.  It is powerless against certain circumstances.  For instance, though I’m a passionate baseball fan, passion for the game won’t get me into the major leagues.  For one thing, MLB likes its players to be under the age of fifty.  Especially when they’re rookies!  However, all other necessary factors being present, nothing propels one more strongly toward success in a given field than passion.  Conversely, lack of passion often spells failure.

Additionally, I’m reminded of the many roads to success.  Though I’ve never been one to discourage others from getting a college degree, on the other hand, there are many alternate paths to achievement.  I’ve often said in speeches that there is a big difference between a Ph.D. and a J-O-B.  There is also a big difference between raw knowledge (acquired in or out of the classroom) and the type of knowledge that comes from a variety of sources and that we can passionately put to use. 

BARBER-OSOPHY:  To find success in any field, master what you’re uniquely passionate about.